Lockheed Martin announced this week that the SBIRS GEO-3 missile warning satellite has reached Geostationary Orbit and delivered its first light images, the first step in a multi-month commissioning campaign to ready the satellite for operation.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket thundered off from Cape Canaveral Friday night, carrying into orbit a crucial missile warning satellite for the U.S. defense forces to keep watch over potentially dangerous missile launches affecting the U.S. homeland and forces stationed abroad.

A United Launch Alliance launched from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 0:42 UTC on January 21, 2017 on a mission to deliver the 1.2-billion SBIRS-GEO 3 satellite to Geostationary Transfer Orbit to join the U.S. Air Force Space-Based Infrared System.

A United Launch Alliance launched from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 0:42 UTC on January 21, 2017 on a mission to deliver the 1.2-billion SBIRS-GEO 3 satellite to Geostationary Transfer Orbit to join the U.S. Air Force Space-Based Infrared System.

ULA’s Atlas V rocket stood fully fueled atop its Cape Canaveral launch pad Thursday night, but was grounded late in its countdown due to a technical issue holding up the planned liftoff with a $1.2 billion missile warning satellite and a wayward aircraft causing a violation on the Eastern Range in the day’s last attempt to get the workhorse launcher off the ground.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket rolled out to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017 for the launch of the SBIRS-GEO 3 satellite, representing a critical part of what is considered the U.S. military’s most important satellite program designed to provide advance warning of missile attacks on the U.S. homeland and military forces stationed abroad.